|
MOVIE CRITIQUE:
"Dirty Pretty Things" is an exceptional movie, but the title may be a bit confusing to you, so let's get that
out of the way right away. "Dirty Pretty Things" refers to hotel rooms and the guests who stay at this downtown
London hotel. They come in and "dirty" up the rooms and it is up to the two stars of this movie and the other hotel
employees to turn the rooms back into "pretty things" once again.
However, little do the employees know how really dirty the upstairs rooms are in this very clean, modern, and otherwise
respectable hotel. This movie is the story of what goes on in those upstairs rooms and how the various employees react when
they find out what is happening almost under their noses.
Chiwetel Ejiofor is just phenomenal as the very moral and upright Nigerian illegal immigrant who is a fugitive from his
homeland on a trumped up murder charge. He imbues his role as Okwe with pathos, heart, moral courage, and an admirable sense
of quiet intelligence. He was a highly educated and respected figure in Lagos, Nigeria before running afoul of the corrupt
regime running the country there. Originally a medical doctor and a pathologist, he has been reduced to driving a cab by day
and working the night shift at the front desk at a downtown London hotel. I don't where this guy comes from, but he is just
magnificent in this movie. His sad quietness speaks volumes that few other actors can emote, even when allowed all the verbiage
in the world.
Audrey Tautoo overwhelmed me as the extraordinarily lovely gamin in the French romantic comedy, "Amelie"(2001).
That role was made for her and she clicked so well in that movie that "Amelie" was my favorite movie for that year.
Of course, roles like that always raise the possibility that the star is a one hit wonder. I shouldn't have worried; Tautoo
isn't. She convincingly proves that point in this movie with her role as Senay, a legal immigrant from Turkey who is forced
to work to live in spite of her temporary residency rules forbidding this. While considerably dressed down in a role befitting
the poverty of her circumstances, no amount of dressing down can hide the luminosity of her huge, brown soulful eyes.
And it is not just Ejiofor and Tautoo who light up the screen in this movie with their presence. Every single role in
this movie is played (and filmed) with heart, passion and conviction. It has always been my personal opinion that one of the
hallmarks of a great movie is that even the roles of the minor characters are fleshed out so well that they also become real
people. After all, the stars have reams of material to speak and the whole movie to make their mark, but the minor actors
often have just a few lines to make theirs.
It is the writing that shines in these small moments, in these few moments where the forced economy of the writing and
the acting is allowed to make its mark on a movie by creating minor characters of an indelible nature. This particular movie
is almost like a mini-United Nations as almost everyone in it comes from a different country and has a different story to
tell. It all makes for a fascinating mix, er, brew of humanity and also quite a colorful movie as a result.
Great credit must be given to Stephen Frears ["High Fidelity"(2000), "The Grifters"(1990) and "Dangerous
Liaisons"(1988)] for directing this cinematic gem of a movie. And special thanks must also be given to screenplay writer
Steve Knight for providing Frears with such rich material with which to work.
---------------------
MOVIE SYNOPSIS:
Okwe (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is prowling London's Heathrow Airport looking for fares. The failure of another cab driver to
show up turns out to be his gain and he cheerfully drives the four businessmen to their destination. His shift now over, he
returns to the tiny, hole in the wall offices of his cab company and gives the keys to the cab to the driver for the next
shift.
The cab controller (Jeffery Kissoon) motions for Okwe to come back to the rear office, an office which is separated from
the hubbub upfront and therefore fairly private. He drops his pants to show Okwe his infected genital area (Don't worry: we
don't see this.) and asks for help. Okwe promises to get the proper medication for him, which he does later at the city morgue
as he is friends with the morgue's night manager, Guo Yi (Benedict Wong).
The fact that the morgue is connected to a hospital makes the pilferage of this medicine rather easy and convenient. Guo
Yi is able to get a fake id for Okwe identifying him as an after hours janitor. He is then able to dress in scrubs and pilfer
the drugs from the shelves while he is cleaning the floors.
These two have much in common as it turns out that Okwe was a medical doctor and pathologist before being forced to flee
his native Nigeria. Furthermore, Okwe is unable to sleep very much, so he spends many long hours with Guo Yi in an ongoing
friendly rivalry at chess. And both are immigrants living far away from their native lands.
Okwe heads over to the Baltic Hotel, a small hotel in the center of the industrial district of London and therefore close
to its large immigrant population. He manages the night desk there in partnership with Ivan (Zlatko Buric), a Russian émigré
who works as the hotel's doorman and porter. One note of concern early on in the movie develops when it comes out that Ivan
is instructed not to comment ever about who comes in and who leaves the hotel while he is on duty.
Late that evening a very lovely woman made up in the extravagant style of a prostitute slowly and slinkily descends the
hotel's wide stairway. Juliette (Sophie Okonedo) is a regular at the hotel and is on friendly terms with the night staff.
Like everyone else, Juliette comes from somewhere else as she is an immigrant from the West Indies. She has that exotic look
about her of having the mixed blood from many races flowing through her veins.
She casually mentions to Okwe that one of the toilets is not working in a room on the fifth floor and Okwe immediately
goes up to investigate. Water is leaking out of the toilet onto the floor and Okwe bends a coat hanger to pull the plug out.
He has done this many times before but he has never had the results that he has this time. The toilet water turns ominously
red as he fishes around and then a large piece of flesh comes up at the end of Okwe's hook. It is a heart, a human heart,
and Okwe, being a medical doctor, recognizes it instantly.
As daylight arrives and his shift ends, Okwe goes down to see "Sneaky" Juan (Sergi López), the daytime manager
of the hotel. Showing him the white plastic bag with the heart inside, Okwe wants Sneaky to call the police. "Go ahead,"
Sneaky says and dials the number for him. Okwe is now in a quandary because if he reports this crime to the police he will
be found to be an illegal alien and then deported back to Lagos, Nigeria to a certain death or at the very least a very long
imprisonment.
He dejectedly hangs the telephone up, and now Sneaky, who plays all the angles, knows that there is something hidden in
Okwe's background. He later plans to have him investigated to see if any useful information can be ascertained, but for the
meantime he tells him to mind his own business and then sends him on his way.
Okwe takes a circuitous path to his "home," which is actually a couch used only for sleeping in an upstairs
apartment above a small grocery store. He rents the couch from Senay (Audrey Tautoo), who is a devout young Muslim lady from
Turkey. She is living in England on a temporary residency permit which she hopes to be made official so that she can then
emigrate to New York City and join her sister. Senay admires and trusts Okwe, but still the proprieties must be observed as
she is an unmarried Muslim woman. Okwe is not to arrive within five minutes of the time she comes home and he is always to
knock first.
And he mustn't appear too friendly at the ethnic grocer's downstairs where Okwe often goes to buy his almost daily supply
of the leafy Qat(?) for chewing. Okwe chews the leaves of this stimulative plant in order to stay awake during the long hours
that he puts in on his two jobs. This habit of Okwe's, widespread in the Middle East and in Africa, is perhaps his only vice.
The rules of Senay's temporary residency forbid her to work, so she also has to be on the lookout for the immigration
officials, although only while working. Naturally today they choose to show up just as Okwe sits down to relax. As he is an
illegal alien, he quickly has to flee the apartment while Senay stays behind to hide his personal effects. She forgets to
hide his shoes, which the two noisy, brutish officials then take away with them as evidence.
They also have information that Senay is working as a day maid at the Baltic Hotel. Shortly after their raid on her apartment,
they show up at the Baltic Hotel at the early hour of 4:45 am in the morning just as the day shift is beginning to arrive
for work.
And these are only the small indignities that Senay and Okwe have to put up with as the respectable facade of the Baltic
Hotel slowly fades away to reveal something very sinister quietly taking place in those upstairs rooms. This is the story
of how Okwe and Senay react upon learning that horrible news.
|
